3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 15)

WWE delivered a 'KO' to Roman Reigns and set up a weird obstacle course on SmackDown.

by Jamie Kennedy
Roman Reigns Paul Heyman Jey Uso Adam Pearce
WWE.com

Well, he was a red herring after all.

SmackDown's sort-of GM Adam Pearce won't challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at the 2021 Royal Rumble. Instead, returning hero Kevin Owens will go toe-to-toe with the champ in a 'Last Man Standing' match on 31 January. That, after all the whinging and disbelieving glances last week, is a bit of a relief.

This week's effort wasn't the greatest show though. It feels like SmackDown has fallen off a bit of a cliff since calendars turned to 2021, and it's hard to understand why. Reigns is still a domineering overseer for the brand, they crowned new Tag-Team Champions last Friday, and everything should be heading in the right direction now it's (almost) officially WrestleMania season.

It's just a pity that everything feels so...bland right now. Hopefully that'll be rectified over the next few weeks, because the Rumble deserves way more than tepid build - that's what fans are getting, for varying reasons, on both Raw and SmackDown at the moment.

Regardless, it's never all bad. Here are all this week's 'Ups' and 'Downs'...

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Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.